This is your space, Studio Zona?
Yeah. This is the place where I feel the happiest. I feel like whatever is happening outside, I can get some relief being here. I've got my studio, and outside of that door there are other studios. We have a common area, which we share. During the pandemic, I was coming here, locking myself in my own studio. I missed the social and creative interaction I was used to before the world went upside down, but I can't complain as other people had it so much harder. I could come here on my bike and work, and that kept me going. Before, I had a studio on the other side of London – that meant an hour and a half commuting on the Underground. This would not have been possible if I still had that place. When lockdown truly happened here, it was in March 2020. I was on a session at Strongroom Studios, recording with this artist, Jealous of the Birds [Naomi Hamilton], from Northern Ireland. We were watching the news unfolding. She looked at me and said, "I need to take a flight back right now, or I'll be stranded here." We finished the vocals for that song and then she had to go. The day after, they closed the studios down. We were the last ones there for a while.
I've done far more mixing than tracking since the pandemic started. Has tracking work been coming back for you now?
It has, yeah. Everything went back to the same rate as before, if not more, because artists during the lockdown have been writing, writing, writing. Like you, I switched to mixing in the depth of the pandemic. Some projects had to happen remotely. I was meant to help out with the production of Circuit des Yeux [Haley Fohr]'s -io, for example. I was looking forward to that, because I love her music. I ended up having to mix instead, without being involved in the production. It was a bummer for me. I would have loved to have been there from the start, but it's a pandemic. Same thing with another artist, Desire Marea. I was meant to be more involved from the start, and I was meant to attend a session for mixing; but being in South Africa meant that they couldn't travel to me. It happened to everyone. People had their tours canceled, and that was thousands of pounds for them. I can't complain. I could still mix here and use the studio.
Is there a common tracking space?
I mostly do mixing and tracking here, when it's not a full band at the same time. When I record live, I like to be in the same room comfortably without being crammed into a small space. Both for the sound and for the actual feeling of it. Next door, on the same floor, there is a big tracking room with a separate control room. I carry my tape machines, and whatever I need, from here into there. It's convenient. I got it in 2019 when I moved from Hammersmith; I was working out of the studio at Mute Records. I was working for them, doing my own music, as well as for artists on other record labels. I had the occasion to come and see this space, which wasn't a studio before. It was a completely empty warehouse. I met the guys who were building it, and I said, "Okay, I would love this section because it has the most windows. I want to see outside." They built the walls, did all the insulation, and I was one of the first ones here. Slowly they started to fill in all the other rooms. It's a nice hub.
Is there a name for the whole complex there?
It's called Pony Studios. The guys are in a band [Tempesst], and instead of spending their advance on renting out a studio they decided to build their own, which is the big studio next door. They happen to be very good builders, and good brains with all the acoustics. They're resourceful, because now they have an income.
That's a common studio concept we're seeing now. The idea of having resident engineers working in private suites, and then a shared area they can rent or request.
In cities like London, space costs a lot of money. So, it's not common for many producers and engineers to have a huge studio [of their own], unless it's a bit out of the city or totally in the countryside. At some point, I think I might get a second and bigger studio in Italy, where I can have a live room and separate control room. Hopefully somewhere by Lake Iseo, where I was born, and where I can host artists and bands I work with.
One of the reasons you moved from Italy was a lack of studio infrastructure and work to be had, right?
That's the main reason, totally. Why else would I leave everything; my family and my friends? I didn't know anyone in London. Zero. I moved here because I had already exhausted the resources I had there. I started there in live sound when I was around 15. My first mentor, Carlo Dall'Asta, and I were working at this centro sociale – social center. It's a place that was liberated in the '90s. That means that it was occupied back then by a group of activists.
Like squatters?
